Westbeth Gallery celebrates Winter with a block buster show of over 75 artists.

Exhibition Dates: November 20– December 17, 2021

Exhibiton Location: Westbeth Gallery 155 Bank Street, New York, NY
Exhibition Hours: Wednesday – Sunday 1PM – 6PM

Belatedly coinciding with Westbeth Artists Housing 50th anniversary, Westbeth Gallery ‘s Winter Show, presents a selection of remarkable new work created by over 75 emerging and established Westbeth artists.

Working within the parameters of self-quarantine and the unsettled times, the exhibit explores both implicity and explicitly the eloquent response of visiual artists’ through a range of their artistic practice, including painting, drawing, collage, sculpture, photography, mixed media, multi media, textile art, and installation.

For so long, places of art were silent and the art of the residents artists isolated. With this show, Westbeth Gallery has created not only place of beauty and vitality, but an environment that captures the essence of artistic dialogue and inspiration. And, in the tradition of art as the questioner of the status quo, the show also explores issues of racisim, identity and environmental degradation.

The Winter Show is the result of the achievement of art to transform lives.

The exhibit also introduces the changes in the gallery during the past two years when it was closed . Working in close collaboration with Ellen Salpeter, Westbeth CEO, and the Visual Arts team of the Westbeth Artists Residents Council chaired by Mourrice Papi, the Gallery has been updated with new lighting, funded by Westbeth Beautification Committee, and new branding designed by Topos Graphics.

For further info: westbethgallery@gmail.com

November 9, 2021– January 7, 2022

Artist’s Reception: Thursday, November 11th from 12:00 – 6:00 pm

Bookstein Projects is pleased to announce an exhibition of new paintings and works on paper by Olive Ayhens. This is the artist’s fifth solo show with the gallery.

Executed over the last two years, the works in this exhibition were predominantly started and executed during the COVID-19 quarantine in New York City. Having recently moved from Brooklyn to the West Village, the artist found herself in a new neighborhood that was completely deserted and ripe for exploration. Having no one around allowed the artist to connect more immediately with the architecture and buildings in her new neighborhood, which would have normally been quite busy. Like many artists, Ayhens found a renewed passion for painting during the pandemic because it allowed her to concentrate on something productive, in an almost meditative way.

In Overpop Jamboree, the masterstroke of the exhibition, the artist has invented an urban landscape replete with a myriad of vibrantly colored buildings. While the painting does not represent a specific city, there are many skyscrapers that are reminiscent of actual buildings including Cass Gilbert’s Woolworth Building, New York (1913), Frank Gehry’s New York by Gehry, New York (2011), Foster and Partners’ Khan Shatyr Entertainment Center, Astana, Kazakhstan (2010), and Spanish architecture by Antoni Gaudí. In the lower right corner of the painting, a large crowd scene spills out of the picture plane. While Ayhens was initially interested in visually representing overpopulation, she resigned herself to the notion that it could not be done effectively and resorted to a crowd scene instead. Contrasting against the vivid colors of the city, the crowd scene is executed in a grisaille palette inspired by an ­­Old Master painting. In Waves are Coming, inspired by DUMBO, a modern glass building is raised on stilts to protect it from the rising waters of the East River crashing at its base. Higher up on the building’s glass façade, reflections of the East River blur the lines between what is inside and what it outside.

Olive Ayhens (b. Oakland, CA) received her BFA and MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute. In addition to her extensive exhibition history, Ayhens has been the recipient of numerous awards and grants including the Joan Mitchell Grant, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Award and Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation Individual Support Grant. Artist residencies include The Walsh Sharpe Art Foundation Space Program, MacDowell Colony, Fundacion Valparaiso, the Salzburg Kunsterhaus, Yaddo Artist Residency, Djerassi Artist Residency, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, the Roswell Artist Residency, the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and a residency at the Sharpe-Walentas Studio Program in 2017. The artist lives and works in New York City.

Bookstein Projects
60 East 66 th Street
3rd Floor
New York, NY 10065

Gallery hours are Monday through Friday, 11:00 am to 5:00 pm.

For additional information and/or visual materials, please contact the gallery at (212) 750-0949 or
email at info@booksteinprojects.com.

Tuesday November 9, 2021
1pm – 7pm
Westbeth Community Room
155 Bank Street
New York, NY
Enter through courtyard

All Registered Donors at the blood drive will be automatically entered into New York Blood Center’s November 2021 Sweepstakes with a chance to win one of three Target or Walmart Gift Vouchers1st prize – $1,500 gift voucher, 2nd prize – $1,000 gift voucher, 3rd prize – $750

Appointments are preferred however walk-ins will be welcomed if space permits.
Please remember to eat, drink, and bring your donor ID card or ID with name and photo.
Masks are required for all donors regardless of vaccination status.

CLICK HERE TO MAKE AN APPOINTMENT: New York Blood Drive at Westbeth

Sponsored by Westbeth Artists Residents Council

“One awakened to the sound of sopranos practicing scales, the scent of incense, and as now, birds chirping “good morning.” At the western end of Bank Street was Westbeth, the former home of Bell Labs, which had just been revolutionized into the largest subsidized home for Artists in the world. All seemed rather idyllic and filled with dynamic possibility.

It was within this marvelous milieu that I was introduced to renowned mask maker and theatrical set designer, artist Ralph Lee.

Ralph whispered his ideas to me about creating a true Halloween Parade. The West Village of 1974 was a very different place than it is now — it was a tight-knit creative community of visual artists, musicians and literary figures.”

– Jill Lynne “Memories of Ralph Lee’s first Halloween Parade.
Read entire article in New York Social Diary

Westbeth puppeteers, Ralph Lee’s and Penny Jones’ puppets are currently on view at the Museum of the City of New York’s exhibit, Puppets of New York.
See more about the show here. Ralph Lee and Penny Jones